Not applicable.
Not applicable.
The sport of bowfishing involves using a bow and arrow to catch fish. Bowfishermen typically tie a bowfishing line to the tail of the arrow. This is done to recover the arrow, and possibly a fish, following shooting an arrow into the water. The bow for bowfishing therefore includes a reel to recover the line attached to the arrow as a part of the equipment. U.S. Pat. No. 4,383,516 shows a reel for a bowfishing line that attaches to the bow and can be used to reel back in the line attached to the arrow.
However, the attachment of the bowfishing line to the tail of the arrow can lead to dangerous conditions. In particular, if the line attached to the arrow tangles with the bow string during release of the arrow, such a tangle can result in a snap back of line, which can propel the arrow back at the fisherman. Since the arrow must be tethered in order to recover the arrow and any fish hit, providing a mechanism to minimize any tangle between the line and the bow is an important safety feature of bowfishing equipment.
Juelg, Jr. et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,397 disclosed a bowfishing arrow that allows the fishing line to be tied to the front portion of the arrow. However, a disadvantage of tying the fishing line to the front portion of the arrow is that the drag of the line can cause the arrow not to fly true to its target.
Gannon, U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,413, disclosed a bowfishing arrow that has a sliding stop and a fixed stop on the arrow shaft. The sliding stop and the fixed stop are designed to prevent the arrow from completely passing through the fish. As is common in the prior art, the line is attached to the rear end of the arrow, which must lie in the bowstring during the pull of the bow, thereby requiring that the segment of the line adjacent to the arrow must pass closely by the bow during launch of the arrow.
The prior does not provide a mechanism to minimize any possibility of the tangling of the line with the bowstring during arrow launch.
The present invention provides an improved bowfishing arrow that prevents the bowfishing line from tangling with the bow string during release which can cause the arrow to snap back to cause serious injury. The improved arrow achieves this prevention by including a slide and a stop on the arrow shaft. The bowfishing line is tied to the slide which stays in front of the archer""s hand and the arrow rest during drawback. During release, the arrow flies forward, through the slide until the slide hits the stop, which is located at the rearward end of the arrow. The stop is designed to not touch the arrow rest or the bow handle during release. Because the slide slides back to the rearward end of the arrow during release, the rubbing of the fishing line against the arrow shaft and thus the wear of the fishing line is greatly reduced during the period that the arrow is moving toward an intended target.
Besides the safety benefit and low fishing line wear, other objects and advantages of the present invention, such as the prevention of sand wedging between the slide and the arrow shaft and the easiness and quickness of tying the fishing line to the slide, will become apparent from the following detailed descriptions of specific embodiments of the invention.